Final Draft

The lowdown on downloading
Written by Abby Richter

Lets put ourselves in the shoes of a musician for a moment. You have just recorded a new album where you wrote, composed and produced the songs yourself. Your album becomes quite popular, so you’re very excited about the profits that are going to be pouring in. Some time goes by and you’re still not seeing very much profit off of the album even though it’s been a hit. So what’s the problem? It’s a simple answer--illegal downloading via Internet.

All ISPs (Internet Service Providers) should ban their customers from the use of P2P networks (Peer to Peer) or they should put a device into action that would monitor if a user was downloading illegally over these networks. Some ISPs, especially college ISPs, do deny access to P2P networks, but the majority don’t. If we did this, the problem of illegally downloading music could be put to a halt because there would be no illegal file sharing.

Illegally downloading music is stealing someone else’s property, which in this case would be hard-earned income of musicians. Where in our right minds do we think that this is okay? We wouldn’t want someone stealing our car or any of our property that we worked hard to acquire.

Bono, the U2 front man, wants better control of what’s going on in the online world. Bono thinks we should put online tracking devises into action that would check if a user was downloading a song illegally over P2P networks. “A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators,” Bono stated in a New York Times Column. U2 is a very well known band that is well off, but they are making very little money from their album sales. Most of their profits from the year of 2009 came from their ticket sales.

During the year of 2008, the IFPI released a report which revealed that more than 40 million songs were illegally downloaded in 2008. This amounts to 95% of all music downloads, which means the recording industry is only making 5% of the money they could be making. Yes, most of society probably thinks that musicians make enough money, so who cares if we download their music illegally. The truth is that only a fraction of our world’s musicians make it to be millionaires and superstars.

As for those who are not involved in that small fraction of millionaires, they are just trying to make a living in an everyday life. Making music is their job and illegally downloading it is just as bad as stealing their CD from a store. If we think of the jobs we have had and imagine someone ripping off our income, we probably wouldn’t want that job anymore.

If musicians get discouraged and can’t make any income off of the music they put so much time and effort into, they are not going to want to continue with that career. This will lead to musicians not inventing or not writing new music. Without new music, our society is going to lose its sense of creativity. And a world without creativity means a world without music, which would be a pretty dull world.



Sources

Adams, Sean. "95% of music downloads in 2008 were illegal - DiS reacts and suggests two
solutions." Drowned in Sound. 16 Jan 2009. Drowned in Sound, Web. 28 Jan 2010. .

Cucombre, Kim. "CD Insight." Bono asks for stricter Internet downloading rules. 05 Jan
2010. CD Insight, Web. 28 Jan 2010. .

"You Think! ." Illegally Downloading Music: Singing the Blues. 2010. You Think!, Web. 28
Jan 2010. .
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List of Claims

1. Policy Claim- All ISPs (Internet Service Providers) should ban their customers from the use of P2P networks (Peer to Peer) or they should put a device into action that would monitor if a user was downloading illegally over these networks.
2. Casual Claims- If we did this (banned P2P networks), the problem of illegally downloading music could be put to a halt because there would be no illegal file sharing.
-If musicians get discouraged and can’t make any income off of the music they put so much time and effort into, they are not going to want to continue with that career.
- Without new music, our society is going to lose its sense of creativity.
3. Value Claim- Illegally downloading music is stealing someone else’s property, which in this case would be hard-earned income of musicians.
4. Factual Claims- During the year of 2008, the IFPI released a report which revealed that more than 40 million songs were illegally downloaded in 2008.